Mattawa Museum

My name is Alex Guscott and I am an emerging museum professional. I am from North Bay, but have also lived in Guelph, Barrie, and Gravenhurst. I graduated from UofG with a B.A in History and a minor in Political Science. After that, I moved to Barrie to attend Georgian College’s postgraduate Museum and Gallery Studies program which prepared me for the wonderful world of museum work. Currently, I am enrolled in Algonquin College’s online postgraduate Human Resources Management program. My main goal is to work in museums to preserve history for future generations which is why I am pleased to now be working with the Mattawa Museum.

I have now experienced my first week working at the Mattawa Museum. From this first week, I’ve already learned many interesting facts about Mattawa and the surrounding area’s history. I am personally interested in learning more about Dr. Monestime and making connections to current times. My main role will be digitizing 35 years of catalogue cards into Past Perfect, a museum software that helps greatly with collection management. However, I will also be writing blog posts, helping with our new Instagram account, coming up with ideas for exhibits, and cleaning.

My first three days were spent at the museum both exploring the collection and cleaning. While cleaning sounds boring, it is giving me a chance to get a closer look at the many artifacts in the museum collection which I find very interesting as an emerging museum professional. On Thursday and Friday, I worked from home which gave me the chance to organize and prioritize my tasks for the coming weeks. As well, I started making a small (very small) dent in my main project to digitize the museum’s collection.

All in all, I find museum work very interesting and am excited for the coming weeks at the Mattawa Museum despite it being closed due to COVID-19. Look out for other “Week at the Museum” blog posts in the coming weeks!

Hi, my name is Mariah Lejambe and I am from Mattawa. I am a second year Biopharmaceutical Science student at the University of Ottawa and currently working as Archival Assistant at the Mattawa Museum. Some of my hobbies include golfing, skiing and reading. The Mattawa Museum is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, work at the museum has not stopped, we have started this blog to let you know what we’ve been up to. Alex and I have just started our new jobs as Archival Assistants. Our first week at the museum was to familiarize ourselves with the exhibits and start cleaning. This summer I will be doing research and working on the Instagram page for the Museum. I look forward to learning more about the incredible history of our town.